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America Sings

Coordinates: 33°48′43″N 117°55′00″W / 33.81194°N 117.91667°W / 33.81194; -117.91667
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America Sings
Disneyland
AreaTomorrowland
StatusClosed
Opening dateJune 29, 1974
Closing dateApril 10, 1988
ReplacedCarousel of Progress
Replaced byInnoventions
Ride statistics
Attraction typeRotating Theater
DesignerWED Enterprises
ThemeAmerican Musical History
MusicBuddy Baker
Hosted byEagle Sam (Burl Ives), Ollie Owl (Sam Edwards)
Additional Voices Bob Holt
Hal Smith
Mel Blanc
Clarence Nash
Stan Freberg
Dal McKennon
Paul Winchell
Paul Frees
June Foray
Ruth Buzzi
Linda Gary
Audio-Animatronics115
SponsorDel Monte Foods

America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of audio animatronics animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion.

America Sings exterior

America Sings opened on June 29, 1974, replacing the General Electric-sponsored Carousel of Progress attraction, which had moved to the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973. America Sings used the same Carousel Theater as its predecessor. The building had an outer ring of six theaters, connected by divider walls, that revolved mechanically about every four minutes around the six fixed stages in the center of the building.

Unlike Disneyland's Carousel of Progress, which rotated clockwise, America Sings rotated in a counter-clockwise direction. Also, unlike Carousel of Progress, America Sings only used the lower level of the Carousel Theater. The upper level was used to house the SuperSpeed Tunnel (which later became the Game Grid of Tron) that the PeopleMover transportation attraction passed through.

Written primarily by Marc Davis and Al Bertino, America Sings was comparable to Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree, in that it featured a singing cast of audio-animatronics animals. The show's Masters of Ceremonies were an American bald eagle named Sam (voiced by Burl Ives) and an owl named Ollie (voiced by Sam Edwards). The image of Eagle Sam was designed by Disney animator Marc Davis, as were the other characters. Eagle Sam is completely separate from the Sam the Olympic Eagle character designed a decade later by C. Robert Moore (also a Disney employee) for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Like the Carousel of Progress, the first and the last scenes of America Sings involved the loading and unloading of guests, while the other four scenes, or "acts," depicted a particular era. However, the identical load and unload theaters each featured a small curtained gazebo with a backdrop showing a park. The curtains would open to reveal Sam and the owl standing on a two-level podium, with Sam standing on the higher level, introducing or closing the show.

Between each act, as the theater rotated, the lights blacked out, and the theater illuminated with flashing stars; during the rotations, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".[1]

Also, at some point in each act, the Weasel would suddenly appear on the scene, spouting the title line, "Pop, Goes the Weasel!" for a total of five times. At the very end of the show, he changed the line to, "Goodbye, Goes the Weasel!"

The characters in America Sings were patterned after the characters from the concept art for an animated movie called Chanticleer, that Walt Disney scrapped back in the 1960s.

The songs

Norman "Buddy" Baker arranged a selection of songs chosen to represent a panoramic view of American music.[2]

Intro

Act 1 - The Deep South

Act 2 - Headin' West

Act 3 - The Gay '90s

Act 4 - Modern Times

Epilogue

Incident and Renovation

See also: Incidents at Disneyland Resort

On July 8, 1974, nine days after the attraction opened, 18-year-old Disneyland cast member and America Sings hostess Deborah Gail Stone was crushed to death between two walls of the building around 10:35-10:40pm. A narrow channel between a stationary wall and a rotating wall was open and Deborah either fell, stepped backwards or tried to jump from one stage to the other as the rotating wall began to move (it moved every 2-4 minutes which was how long each act was). She died 20 minutes later at 11pm when the carousel was being reset for a new cycle. One of the audience members heard Deborah's screams and notified park staff. Other employees didn't notice the dismembered body until the end of the show and thought that Deborah's death screams were part of the show. Deborah's parents attempted to sue Disney for the death of their daughter, which resulted in a small settlement. [3][4]

After the incident, the attraction was abruptly closed down and remained closed while safety lights were being installed. Later on, the walls in the theater were remodeled so that they would break away in case a similar incident happened. The attraction did not reopen until July 11, 1974.

Closure

In 1986, two years before America Sings officially closed, two audio-animatronic geese were taken out of the attraction. Their "skin" was removed, leaving only the robotic skeletons. Their heads were then replaced, and they were used as two talkative G2 droids in the queue to Star Tours, which would open in early 1987.[5] One of them (named G2-9T) still sings a modified "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (retitled "I've Been Looking at the Same Bag") in Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. As a result, the geese quartets in Acts 1 and 2 became trios until America Sings ceased to operate.

Show sponsor Del Monte having already ended its sponsorship, America Sings officially closed on Sunday, April 10, 1988. The closure was mainly attributed to its waning attendance in Disneyland, and some guests felt the attraction seemed dated and out-of-place. However, removing the attraction also made audio animatronic figures available for the Splash Mountain[6] log flume. Most of the Audio-Animatronic animals were moved to the flume ride, which opened in the summer of 1989. The rock and roll stork in the finale is now used by Imagineers for training new Animatronics programmers, acting as a final exam of sorts. The remainder of the show's Audio-Animatronics were recycled.

The Carousel Theater was used as office space for ten years. During this time, the carousel theater's external appearance was unchanged, and the upper level continued to house the Tron tunnel for the PeopleMover until that attraction ceased to operate in 1995. A large sign in front of the building showed Sorcerer Mickey alongside text reading, "Sorry, we're closed to imagineer a brand new attraction." This gave guests some hope that a new attraction was in the works, but the building was not touched for nearly a decade. For many years guests wondered what the new attraction replacing America Sings was going to be. For a few years, during the planned 'Disney Decade' started by Michael Eisner, a new audio-animatronic show called Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue was to open. It was to have been an outer space-themed musical-variety revue featuring a troupe of Audio-Animatronics itinerant alien musicians whose spaceship had landed in Tomorrowland. The idea was part of the original "Tomorrowland 2055" plan and was planned to open around 1994. However, Disneyland Paris, which opened in 1992, ended up costing the Disney company billions of dollars putting them in debt, so the whole "Tomorrowland 2055" plan was scrapped due to budget considerations.

From the day of its closure until 1996, the inside of the lower level of the Carousel Theater was used for storage and office space leaving only remnants of deteriorating sets and backdrops as well as the empty, unused theater seats. America Sings was finally replaced by Innoventions, a version of the Epcot attraction of the same name, in 1998 as part of the new Tomorrowland update of that year.

References

  1. ^ Complete show script from DisneyPhenom.com (via archive.org). and complete script at Operation Preserve Disneyland. Archived October 25, 2009.
  2. ^ "Guide to the Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection". Fales Library and Special Collections. New York University Libraries. 2006. Retrieved February 7, 2007.
  3. ^ Remembering Deborah - July 8, 1974
  4. ^ Mouseplanet: In Memory
  5. ^ America Sings Historical DVD from Extinct Attractions Club
  6. ^ Splash Mountain: History (Song of the South.net)

33°48′43″N 117°55′00″W / 33.81194°N 117.91667°W / 33.81194; -117.91667

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